The Holocaust and French Historical Culture, 1945–65 (The Holocaust and its Contexts)

The post-war handling of the Holocaust has been a troublesome issue all over Europe. In France, the genocide has been associated to varying degrees with the conflicting legacy of the Vichy regime. It has also posed a significant challenge to the French republican reluctance to differentiate between citizens according to their ethnicity or religious affiliation. Yet its heritage also touches on solidarity between Jews and non-Jews, democracy, and opposition to Nazism.The Holocaust and French Historical Culture, 1945–65 investigates the institutional development of Holocaust remembrance in France in the two decades following the end of the War. Paris was home to one of the key European initiatives to document and commemorate the genocide—the Centre de documentation juive contemporaine. By analysing the earliest Holocaust narratives and their reception in France, this book provides a new understanding of the origins of the Holocaust remembrance that today occupies a central place in French and European identity.